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'A Midsummer Night’s Dream' coming in March

For USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Published 9:30 a.m. CT Feb. 18, 2016

From left, theatre students Haley Moser of East Bethel, Minn., Silvia Bond of Lake Mills and Khaila Wilcoxon of Kenosha will portray fairies in a UW-Stevens Point Department of Theatre and Dance production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” staged March 4-6 and 10-12.(Photo: Photo courtesy of UW-Stevens Point)

STEVENS POINT - What crazy, stupid things will people do when they are in love? Find out when William Shakespeare’s comedy, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” is staged at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in March.

Performances will be held in the Jenkins Theatre in the Noel Fine Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on March 4-5, and on March 10-12. A 2 p.m. matinee will be offered March 6. The production is appropriate for high school students and adults.

One of Shakespeare’s most popular works, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” follows two couples as they flee into the woods to avoid arranged marriages. They find themselves entangled in a war between the king and queen of the fairies, love potions, an amateur acting troupe and a clever, mischievous fairy named Puck.

Exciting, romantic and funny, the play continues to speak to today’s audience, said director Steve Trovillion Smith, a theater professor at UW-Stevens Point. The play will be set in an Elizabethan version of ancient Greece with a few unexpected twists along the way.

“This is why we still do Shakespeare,” Smith said. “One of the main quotes in the play is ‘Lord, what fools these mortals be.’ People are just as angry, passionate and crazy when they’re in love today as they were then.”

A few members of the cast of 23 students were among those Smith took on a trip to London last summer to see plays at a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. They also visited Hampton Palace, one of the only remaining locations where Shakespeare’s acting troupe performed during his lifetime.

“The trip stoked the students’ passion for Shakespeare and theater in general, and they are now bringing that increased awareness back to their work in Wisconsin,” said Smith. “I hope many people from our community will take advantage of this opportunity to see the next generation of young artists bring this classic to hilarious life.”

Tickets are $21 for adults, $20 for seniors, $16 for youth and $4.50 for students with UW-Stevens Point ID. Tickets are available at the UW-Stevens Point Information and Tickets Office, located in the Dreyfus University Center concourse, by calling 715-346-4100 or at http://tickets.uwsp.edu.